War ‘on’ terror, or ‘for’ terror?

Iraq, Kirkuk: A US solider man his rifle while on patrol in the restive northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, on July 27, 2011. (AFP Photo / Ali Al-Saadi) / AFP

The scenes of horror that unfolded on 9/11 sparked a response that would become the “War on Terror”. But experts believe we are now in a much more dangerous world than we were 10 years ago.

­Lindsey German from the Stop the War coalition says the wars unleashed by the US and British governments in Iraq and Afghanistan would not make the world safer and would not reduce, but rather increase terrorism.

“The terror efforts have spread to many parts of the world,” she told RT. “The suicide bombers who made the attacks made it absolutely clear that their motivation was opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

“Muslims around the world, and not just Muslims – many other people – oppose US and British policies over their wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, oppose their policies over Palestine, over a whole range of issues. And these people have been now lumped in as extremists and terrorists in the same kind of way. So when you talk about who the enemy is, the enemy for the people like Bush and Blair is getting wider and wider.”

“But Islamophobia has to be fought politically,” she added. “We need to deal with the political reasons for Islamophobia. And the major reason why Islamophobia has grown so much has been because the West is waging war in Afghanistan, Iraq and now most recently in Libya. And it needs to criminalize and demonize the people who it is waging war against.”

She believes that now “world is incontrovertibly a more dangerous place.”

“We now have a spread of wars, we have more talk of attacks on Iran. We have wars going on in many, many countries. So the consequences of the “War on Terror” have spread throughout South Asian republics and throughout the Middle East. And it is a much more dangerous place and the responsibility for that lies with the governments who started this war in the first place,” German concluded.

Hall Gardner, professor and chair of the Department of International and Comparative Politics at the American University of Paris says now every country can use the “war on terror” for its own purposes.

“This whole strategy of George Bush, such as the “war against Al-Qaeda” and “war on terrorism” is really a disaster", Gardner told RT. “Every state can use the “war on terror” to its own purposes. They look at the US. If the US did that, then we can do that too. And therefore it has opened a real Pandora’s Box. We don’t know what to expect. The rule of International Law has certainly been undermined by American actions.”